Local Chester County school system selected as one of five Tennessee Exemplary ACCESS Districts

Last week, Chester County Director of Schools Troy Kilzer II was notified by the Tennessee Department of Education that the Chester County School System has been selected as one of only five districts to be identified as a Tennessee Exemplary ACCESS District.
The board of education announced the honor during their December meeting.
An excerpt from the letter states: “This designation recognizes your intensive work and exceptional dedication to ensuring that All Children are Challenged and Equipped for Success in School over the past three years through the second cohort of the State Personnel Development Grant. Selection is based on training data, improvements in teaching methods, improvements in IEP quality and efforts to sustain the work system-wide.”
The department of education will announce this virtually at the Partners in Education (PIE) Conference in January. Chester County Schools will be recognized during a special session following the keynote speaker on Wednesday, Jan. 27 and again during the SPDG 3.0 invite-only session that afternoon.
The work that Chester County Special Education Director Melinda Parker and Chester County Junior High RTI2 (Response to Intervention Squared) Coordinator Melissa Alexander implemented training to help bridge the gap between students with and those without special needs.
They were given a SPDG (State Personnel Development Grant) of $10,000 for instructional materials and supplies to help improve the outcome of students with disabilities.
“They would learn all kinds of things. It just wasn’t things that they would use for students with disabilities,” Parker explained. “Any of the strategies that they learned could be used for all students and were used for all students. It was just a way to break it down for students with disabilities so that they could actually be involved and participate more so than they would’ve otherwise.”
The board of education also approved capital projects to school facilities of replacing HVAC units at The Chester County Middle School, Jacks Creek Elementary, Chester County Junior High and West Chester Elementary which is approximated at $210,000 and to finish plumbing at the new baseball and softball facilities.